When you look at these many thousands of people huddled together in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil, to watch British metal icons Iron Maiden perform in
this DVD concert, you get the uneasy feeling that new music must have
stopped crossing this South American country’s borders right around
about 1980. Although their fans’ tastes in music haven’t evolved a
whole lot over the last few decades or so, the members of the Maiden
certainly show signs of oncoming old age. Only singer Bruce Dickinson –
seen here bouncing enthusiastically around the stage in shorts –
appears to have slowed down the aging process somewhat. But drummer
Nicko McBrain looks eerily similar to the way Howard Hughes must have
appeared during his last days of life, albeit one doubts McBrain could
still play the drums if he also had old Howie’s famously extra long
fingernails.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary about mixing gray hair with rock
‘n’ roll. If you don’t believe me; just ask Mick ‘n’ Keith of the
Stones, or Neil Young, for that matter. These folks are just a few of
the elderly ones who can still rock authentically in the free world.
But unlike Iron Maiden, these still-relevant artists have let their
music evolve naturally, rather than stunting its growth like the curves
in an ancient statue or something. Granted, The Stones aren’t exactly
competing with Radiohead for the cutting-edge crown nowadays, but Neil
Young’s growth spurts happen so quickly that, at times, they often
appear to be time-lapse photography experiments. But Iron Maiden is
clearly suffering from a bad case of arrested development. Even though
this live set finds plenty of room for newer tracks – “Ghost Of The
Navigator,” “The Wicker Man” and “Blood
Brothers,” all from the 2000 Brave New World release – it’s nearly
impossible to distinguish these newbies from older standards like “The
Number Of The Beast.” It’s all the same old sound, just with new titles.

The L.A. punk group Fear once sang that New York is all right if you
like saxophones. Similarly, Iron Maiden is okay if you can stomach the
overly dramatic singing of their overly dramatic songs, which are put
to lumbering hard rock beats. But after a while, this repeated formula
begins to sound like noise, as one melodramatic gut-buster follows
another. These songs all mix in relentless guitar solos, which do
nothing to enhance their effectiveness. While Dickinson is in fine
voice here, he does very little to give these widely varying – at least
in subject matter -- songs any kind of contextual value. Except for
occasional screams of, “I can’t f**kin’ hear you,” he doesn’t say a
whole heck of a lot to these voluminous fans.

“Rock In Rio” is at least a beautifully shot video. Its camera work
skillfully captures the grandeur of this extremely large crowd,
especially through the use of bird’s eye overhead perspectives. When
closeups are in order, the band is viewed from almost every conceivable
angle. Had this live DVD showcased a band still in its prime, watching
it would add up to a memorable viewing experience. It’s a whole lot of
skillful camera work, with nothing particularly eye-catching to focus
on. Still, wouldn’t you have at least expected these rock veterans to
pull out all the visual stops for such a large and captive audience?
Yet, except for the dopey looking giant that appears while “The Evil
That Men Do” is being performed, there’s very little in the way of
visual aids for viewers to deposit in memory banks. It doesn’t make
sense to sound so theatrical, without also looking equally theatrical.
But Iron Maiden chose to let the music try and speak for itself, so
everything just came out sounding -- and looking -- beautifully dumb.

This whole package is broken down into two discs. One is the concert
itself, and the second is comprised of special features. One of these
special feature segments details what each band member likes to do on
his day off, and is called “Candid Interviews.” Bruce Dickinson is seen
taking a fencing lesson, which is a skill that must come in handy when
on stage. Who knows when you might need to fend off another band
member, or even an overly enthusiastic fan or two? Nicko McBrain is
followed as he temporarily exchanges his drumsticks for golf clubs on
the greens. Bass player Steve Harris would rather go and watch a soccer
match, instead of doing something physical. But because this sport
attracts so many wild fans, even just watching it can be considered a
kind of an extreme sport at times.

The extra feature “A Day In The Life” follows the band from their plane
to the stage in Rio de Janeiro, and then off the stage after it’s all
over. The group appears to be comprised of generally likable people, if
this video picture is a realistic one. This feature is not of much
educational value, however, unless the fact that Dickinson always
double-knots his tennis shoes before mounting the stage is important
information to you. And if that doesn’t just knock your socks off, so
to speak, perhaps you’ll be impressed with how the cameraman was able
to convince the food service workers at the group’s hotel to pretend to
be Maiden fans, devil horn signs and all. You’re still not impressed? I
don’t blame you.

The least effective special feature here is one put together by Ross
Halfin, the band’s official photographer, called “Ross Halfin Photo
Diary.” It’s presented like one of those “How I Spent My Summer
Vacation” slide presentations dreaded by both kids and adults. It’s
shown picture by boring picture, as Halfin narrates each and every one
with monotone lines like, “Here we are in Mexico,” and, “Bruce is
wearing a shirt his wife bought him that makes him look really cool.”
Such material should have been saved for one of the band’s social
nights, after they’d returned home from the tour, and not preserved for
this DVD.

Strangely enough, these special features -- especially “Candid
Interviews” -- are far more memorable than the concert itself. When
it’s shown playing, Iron Maiden is obviously excited to be in front of
so many thousands of people. But being excited and actually having
something interesting or exciting to say are two very different things.
Iron Maiden mostly shoots blanks, artistically speaking. It’s a
spectacle to see all those lights causing such a glow on that giant
stage, and it’s really something else to hear all the chanting fans who
are supremely enthralled by this concert. But viewers at home just
won’t feel this same eventful magic, because this whole performance is
hollow at its core.